New York
Images
NYU's Office of Admissions announced the university admitted 33 percent of applicants to the Class of 2015 for the Washington Square campus. Of the roughly 41,000 students who applied directly to the campus, 13,731 were accepted.
Since last year, NYU has changed the way it reports its admissions figures. Shawn Abbott, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions, said this is the first year the university included students admitted to the Liberal Studies Program when determining the school's overall admissions rate.
The 29 percent of students NYU accepted last year did not include those students accepted into LSP. Excluding LSP admits, the university accepted 26 percent of applicants this year.
"In an effort to be more transparent about students offered admission to the Liberal Studies Program, we have included LSP students in our statistics — in addition to the university's traditional admit rate to four-year programs," he said.
In October 2010, the university announced that students applying to the class of 2016 could apply directly to LSP. In the past, students were placed in the program instead of the NYU school they originally applied. Abbott said the university felt that it could no longer discount these students from their admissions statistics after this change was made.
"The thought process was that since students were not, in fact, offered admission to the school or college to which they applied, it wasn't factually correct to say that the 'admit rate' was anything higher," he said.
An additional 2,966 students, or 7 percent of applicants, were offered a space on NYU's wait list.
This year, NYU saw a record high 42,242 students apply to the university. This was also the first year it added a second Early Decision application cycle available to students. This change coincided with a 43 percent increase in the amount of early decision applications the university received this year.
Despite the increase in early applicants, the university accepted roughly the same percentage of early decision applications as last year. NYU accepted about 36 percent of early decision applicants to the class of 2015 and about 35 percent to the class of 2014. 29 percent of regular decision applications were accepted.
Abu Dhabi
In just the second round of applicants the campus has ever seen, NYU Abu Dhabi has seen a 3.3 percent increase in its acceptance rate.
Though still a highly selective school, accepting just 193 of the 5,854 applicants to the class of 2015, NYUAD accepted just 2.1 percent of students last year. Despite the rise in the admit rate, NYUAD remains one of the most selective schools in the world. Stanford and Columbia universities accepted around 7 percent of applicants to the class of 2015, and Harvard University accepted just above 6 percent of applications this year.
"We believe that last year's extraordinarily low rate may have worked against us this year, as college counselors indicated that in some cases they were hesitant to encourage even their top students to apply to NYUAD if 98 out of 100 of them weren't going to get in," NYUAD spokesperson Josh Taylor said.
NYUAD also saw a drop in total applications this year. Students vying for admission to NYUAD can either apply directly to the portal campus or apply to NYU New York and answer additional supplemental questions on their application to be considered for admission to NYUAD.
While direct applications to the campus rose by nearly 24 percent, NYUAD received 5,854 total applications to NYUAD, a 35 percent decrease from overall applications last year.
Taylor said that while students who apply directly to NYUAD are not asked if they want to be considered for the New York campus, adding such an option is under "serious consideration for next year."
About 80 percent of the applicants to Abu Dhabi's class of 2015 asked to be considered for both campuses, meaning they first showed interest in the Washington Square campus. Less than 1 percent of these applicants were accepted to the portal campus — just 20 over 1,000 students.
"It's not surprising that many candidates are interested in tossing their hat into both the New York and Abu Dhabi rings," Taylor said.
Taylor pointed out that while NYU New York has been around since 1831, NYUAD is less than two years old.
"It wouldn't be surprising if some applicants learn about NYUAD via the NYU admissions process," he said.
About 15 percent of direct applicants to Abu Dhabi were granted admissions, about three times more than the school's overall admission rate.
"Unfortunately NYUAD had to turn down a lot of terrific applicants — some applied directly to NYUAD, some applied to both campuses," Taylor said.
Taylor said that both schools look to accept the world's top students.
"In terms of differences, NYUAD also looks for students who are interested in a smaller university environment ... and have been identified either by our admissions team — or by those who know the students personally — as having the potential to become a global leader."
In the April 6 issue, WSN inaccurately reported that admissions rates for NYU's Washington Square campus increased. Though the university did accept 33 percent of students this year and 29 percent of students last year, the past year's numbers did not include LSP students. Including LSP last year, the university accepted 38 percent of students. WSN regrets this error.
